Multi-tier polling

ABSTRACT

A polling arrangement where polling frequency and/or rates may be adjusted according to activities of end stations or other elements being polled. The ability to adjust the polling activities may be used to facilitate reducing or otherwise controlling network resources allocated to the supporting the polling or other messaging depending operations.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of provisional application 61/266,653, filed Dec. 4, 2009, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated in its entirety by reference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to the allocation of network space, such as but not limited to the allocation of network space to support polling related activities of the type where end stations may be polled in order to request use of network space.

BACKGROUND

A network may be configured to transmit data within a range of frequency, which is commonly referred to as the bandwidth of the network. Within that frequency range, minislots, data slots, data units or other transmission units may be used to represent portions of the frequency used at a particular time to support transmission of a particular piece of data. The size of the minislots may be quantified in bits and/or bytes, e.g., see a minislot defined according to the Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification (DOCSIS). The number of minislots available at a particular instance in time may be used to define the network space of the network, i.e., the amount of data transfer the network can support at any one particular instance in time.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention is pointed out with particularity in the appended claims. However, other features of the present invention will become more apparent and the present invention will be best understood by referring to the following detailed description in conjunction with the accompany drawings in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates a multi-tiered polling system in accordance with one non-limiting aspect of the present invention;

FIG. 2 illustrates a polling schedule in accordance with one non-limiting aspect of the present invention; and

FIG. 3 illustrates a flowchart of a multi-tiered polling method in accordance with one non-limiting aspect of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIG. 1 illustrates a multi-tiered polling system 10 in accordance with one non-limiting aspect of the present invention. The system 10 includes an aggregating unit 12 operable to dynamically poll one or more end stations 14 according to information provided from an activity monitor 16 regarding transmission activities of the end stations 14. The aggregating unit 12 may be operable to poll each end station 14 individually and adaptively such that polling messages or other types of polling related transmissions may be individually communicated from the aggregating unit 12 to selective ones of the end stations 14 at selective polling intervals. One non-limiting aspect of the present contemplates relying on this adaptive polling capability to facilitate management of network space.

The aggregating unit 12 may be any type of device operable to facilitate allocating resources of a network 22 used to transmit data from the end stations 14. The network 22 is labeled to include a private network 24 and a public network 26. The private network 24 may be used to designate a capability to support private communications between the aggregating unit 12 and the ends stations 14, 16, 18, such as over a closed network or a private virtual network. The communications may be executed through out-of-band (OOB) messaging or other messaging protocols between the aggregating unit 12 and the end stations 14. The public network 26 may be used to designate the Internet or other less secure or non-proprietary networks. The end stations 14 may transmit data according to the OOB or other private protocol, such as to transmit polling related responses/requests, and/or according to other protocols, such as to support IP related communications over the public network.

The aggregating unit 12 is shown as a gateway between the public and private networks 24, 26 for exemplary purposes. The aggregating unit 12 need not act as a gateway and the present invention is not intended to be limited to the aggregating unit 12 operating to support communications between public and private networks 24, 26. The present invention contemplates its use in many environments where it may be desirable to manage network space by adapting polling or other data intensive operations according to operating activities of the end stations 14. To this end, the aggregating unit 12 and the end stations 14 may correspond with any type of electronic device and/or logically executing unit and the network 22 may corresponding with any type or combination of wireline and wireless networks.

The present invention is predominately described with respect to a cable television related configuration in that the private network 24 may correspond with a wireline, cable network provided to a subscriber's home where the end stations 14 may correspond with a cable modem, media terminal adaptor (MTA), settop box (STB), television, or other device desiring data communications over one or more of the networks 24, 26, such as according to communications executed according to the Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification (DOCSIS). Of course, the present invention is not limited to cable related services or cable dependent communications and fully contemplates its application within non-cable environments.

One or more of the end stations 14 may be provided in a subscriber's home, or elsewhere in the event the end station 14, 16, 18 is a mobile device (e.g., pda, mobile phone, netbook, tablet, etc.), such that it may be operable to provide or otherwise facilitates access to any number or type of services, such as but not limited to Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), channel surfing (e.g., changing television channels tuned to over a QAM or IP signaling stream), and file upload/download through P2P or other operations. These services are highlighted since the services are sensitive to temporal inconsistencies, require stringent adherence to properly scheduled data transmissions, and require temporally varying amounts of network space.

One non-limiting aspect of the present invention contemplates managing allocation of network space by controlling a frequency at which the end stations are polled. The network space for exemplary purposes may be defined to correspond with any network or system resource consumed in facilitating data transfer. The network 22 may be configured to transmit data within a range of frequency, which is commonly referred to as the bandwidth of the network. Within that frequency range, minislots, data slots, data units or other transmission units may be used to represent portions of the frequency used at a particular time to support transmission of a particular piece of data. The size of the minislots may be quantified in bits and/or bytes as described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/827,496 entitled System and Method of Decoupling Media Access Control (MAC) and Physical (PHY) Operating Layers, filed Jun. 30, 2010, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.

The number of minislots available at a particular instance in time may be used to define the network space of the network 22, i.e., the amount of data transfer the network can support at any one particular instance in time. The aggregating unit 12 may be configured for managing the amount of network space consumed supporting polling operations according to operating activities of the end stations 14. This, for example, may be facilitated by reducing or eliminating unnecessary polling of the end stations 14. The polling may be of the type that requires a polling message to be transmitted to each station 14. The receiving end station 14 may then be required to respond to the polling message with a response message that indicates a desire to transmit data, referred to as a transmission request, or a response message that indicates no need to transmit data. Optionally, the end station 14 may not be required to response to the polling message if data transmission is not request.

The polling of each end station 14 requires transmission of at least the polling message and in some cases transmission of the response message, i.e., either requesting network space to transmit data or to confirm that data transfer is not requested. Each of the messages consumes network space since the transmission thereof requires one or more minislots to support delivery over the network 22. The present invention is able to conserve network space may managing the polling frequency and/or at which rate each end station 14 are each individually transmitted a polling message. This allows the present invention, for example, to dynamically adapt the polling frequency according to whether each end station 14 is likely to request data transmission, e.g., to transmit less polling messages when the end stations 14 are unlikely to request data transmission.

FIG. 2 illustrates a polling schedule 40 in accordance with one non-limiting aspect of the present invention. The polling schedule 40 illustrates a frequency rate at which each of the five illustrated end stations 14 are transmitted a polling message from the aggregating unit 12 (each polling message is shown with a corresponding rectangular block shaded according to the intended recipient). The aggregating unit 12 may be operable to address the polling messages to one of the end stations 14 intended to be the recipient thereof. The frequency at which each polling message is transmitted may be defined relative to a MAP interval or other time marker, which is shown for exemplary purposes since it is a temporal marker used within DOCSIS supported communications.

The end stations 14 are each shown to be polled at frequencies labels to be one of a high rate, medium rate and low rate, and which respectively correspond with polling messages being transmitted every interval, every other interval and every third interval. Of course, the illustrated frequencies are provided for exemplary purposes and any other frequencies may be used without deviating from the scope and contemplation of the present invention. The polling frequency assigned to each end station 14 may vary according to the operation thereof.

One non-limiting aspect of the present invention contemplates varying the polling frequency depending on whether the end station 14 is characterized as being active or inactive. The active/inactive characterization may be based on transmission activities and other operating activities of the end stations 14, such as an elapse time since the last end station last requested data transmission. The elapse time may be compared to a time threshold such that the inactive end stations 14 are those having an elapse time greater than the time threshold and the active end stations 14 are those having an elapse time less than the time threshold. Of course, other characterizations may be used to classify the end stations as being active and inactive.

Optionally, different time thresholds may be used for different ones of the end stations 14, such as depending on the application requirements, service requirements, and network congestion/percent utilization.

The application requirements may relate to an application operating on the end stations 14 and its operational needs, such as whether the application is of the type that requires regular or frequent data transfer (e.g., VoIP, file upload/download, channel surfing) or less frequent data transfer (e.g., web surfing). The applications requiring more frequent download may be assigned a greater time threshold in an effort to increase the time period in which the end stations 14 can be determined to be active based on the assumption that the end station 14 may is more likely to be requesting data transmission due to the nature of the application operating thereon.

The service requirements may relate to a class of service (e.g., business class, residential class), quality of service (QoS) or other level where enhanced quality or responsiveness may be purchased as part of a subscription. The end stations 14 associate with higher classes of service, such as business class, may be provided with a greater time threshold than the lower classes of service in order to increase the time period in which the higher classes of end stations 14 are determined to be active, and thereby, the amount of network space allocated to support the polling operations thereof.

The percent utilization and/or network congestion parameters may be used to adjust the time threshold according to demands on the network 22. The percent utilization and/or network congestions may be measured according to the network space currently being consumed to support data transmission relative to the total amount of network space available to support data transmissions. The resulting influence on the time threshold may include decreasing the time threshold when network demands are low, such as to increase the likelihood that end stations 14 are determined to be active, and in turn, cause greater consumption of unused network space. The time threshold may also be increased when network demands are greater so that it is more difficult for the end stations 14 to be characterized as being active, which in turn would result in less consumption of the unused network space.

The polling frequency of each end station 14 may be set to one of the illustrated rates depending on whether the end station is active or inactive. For example, the active end stations may be set to at least the medium rate and the inactive end stations may be set to the low rate. Optionally, the polling frequency may be further refined, such as by adjusting the polling frequency of the active end stations according to one of the parameters noted above so that the higher quality/service may be used to increase the polling frequency of some of the active end stations 14 to the high rate while the active end stations that did not purchase or request the higher level of service remaining at the medium rate.

The polling frequency of each end station 14, as supported above, may be set according to any number of parameters and historical operating activities, and in some cases, thereafter adjusted according to purchased services or other enhanced levels of agreed to performance. Each of the polling messages and end station responses consume network space such that the corresponding network space must be allocated and the corresponding message(s) must be scheduled for transmit. In this manner, one non-limiting aspect of the present invention contemplates allocating network space, minislots, etc., according the historical transmission activities of the end stations. By dynamically setting the polling frequency of each end station, the aggregating unit 12 is also able to dynamically adjust the network space allocated to support the polling activities.

As shown in FIG. 2, each of the blocks marking transmission of a polling message may also represent network space consumed in making the corresponding transmission (additional block may be similarly included to represent the corresponding end station response messages but are omitted for exemplary purposes). The adjustment of the polling frequencies results in some of the map intervals having more or less message transmissions than the other. This also results in a corresponding allocation of network space and allows the aggregating unit 12 to use the polling frequencies as a mechanism for controlling or otherwise facilitating allocation of network space/resources. In the event networks space becomes limited, the allocation thereof can be controlled by the aggregating unit 12 making corresponding adjustments to the polling frequencies and/or the requirements necessary to fall within one or more of the polling frequency ranges.

FIG. 3 illustrates a flowchart 44 of a multi-tiered polling method in accordance with one non-limiting aspect of the present invention. The method is described with respect to polling operations where the aggregating unit 12 periodically polls the end stations 14 and to which the end stations response with a transmission request if the end stations desires to transmit data over the network 22. The present invention, however, is not necessarily limited to only adjusting polling frequencies and/or allocation of network resources and may similarly apply to other environments where dynamic adjustments are required to manage network space. The aggregating unit 12, end stations 14 and/or some other device in communication therewith may include logic or other processing capabilities necessary to implement the operations contemplated to execute the method of the present invention, such as in the form of executable code stored within a computer readable medium.

Block 46 relates to determining an activity history for each of the end stations 14. The activity history may relate to the last time each end station 14 requested to transmit data and/or to other parameters reflective of a need to imminently support data transfer from the end stations 14, such as but not limited to a scheduling request where the end stations notifies the aggregating unit 12 of a future point in time during which data transmission will be desired. The activity monitor 16 may be configured to monitor activity of each end station 14, or at least the last message/request transmitted therefrom with respect to polling related operations, and to store corresponding messages or flags within a memory. The information logged into the memory may be continuously updated and used to reassess the activity status of each end station.

Block 48 relates to characterizing each of the end stations 14 as being one of active and inactive. The active and inactive designations are intended to demarcate end stations having activities reflective of a need to support greater polling frequencies from end stations 14 having activities reflective of a need to support lesser polling frequencies. As such, the present invention fully contemplates the use of other labels and categories reflective of the end stations data transmission needs and is not intended to be unnecessarily limited to the noted active and inactive determinations. The active determination made in block may correspond with measuring an elapse time since the each end station 14 last indicate a need for data transmission, such as according to the time thresholds described above.

Block 50 sets an inactive frequency for each end stations 14 determined to be inactive. The inactive polling frequency may vary depending on network congestion, service requirements, application requirements, and/or other operating parameters, as described above. The inactive polling frequency may also corresponding with staggering or otherwise offsetting the inactive polling frequency set for each end station 14 so that the polling thereof is spread across the available MAP intervals, for example. The setting of the inactive polling frequency may also be considered to be an act of allocating network space to support the related polling operations, as described above.

Block 52 sets an active frequency for each end stations determined to be active. The active polling frequency may vary depending on network congestion, service requirements, application requirements, and/or other operating parameters, as described above. The active polling frequency may also corresponding with staggering or otherwise offsetting the active polling frequency set for each end station 14 so that the polling thereof is spread across the available MAP intervals, for example. The setting of the active polling frequency may also be considered to be an act of allocating network space to support the related polling operations, as described above.

Block 56 relates to assessing a need to enhance or otherwise adjust the inactive and active polling frequencies respectively set in Blocks 50, 52. This may occur, for example, in the event one or more of the active and inactive end stations 14 purchased an increased level of service or are otherwise associated with different levels of polling due to some other commitment or request. In the event no adjustment is needed, Block 58 is reached and the set polling frequency is maintained. In the event an adjustment is warranted, Block 60 is reached and the set polling frequency is adjusted. While shown to relate to enhancing, i.e., increasing the active or inactive polling frequencies, a similar operation may take place in the opposite directions, such as if network congestion increases or the end stations change applications.

As required, detailed embodiments of the present invention are disclosed herein; however, it is to be understood that the disclosed embodiments are merely exemplary of the invention that may be embodied in various and alternative forms. The figures are not necessarily to scale, some features may be exaggerated or minimized to show details of particular components. Therefore, specific structural and functional details disclosed herein are not to be interpreted as limiting, but merely as a representative basis for the claims and/or as a representative basis for teaching one skilled in the art to variously employ the present invention. The features of various implementing embodiments may be combined to form further embodiments of the invention.

While exemplary embodiments are described above, it is not intended that these embodiments describe all possible forms of the invention. Rather, the words used in the specification are words of description rather than limitation, and it is understood that various changes may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Additionally, the features of various implementing embodiments may be combined to form further embodiments of the invention. 

1. A multi-tier method of dynamically adjusting polling frequencies at which end stations are transmitted a polling message, the end stations desiring to transmit data being required to respond to the polling message with a transmission request, the method comprising: monitoring data transmission activities of the plurality of end stations; individually characterizing each end station to be one of active and inactive based on the transmission activities; setting an inactive polling frequency for a first plurality of end stations characterized as being inactive; setting an active polling frequency for a second plurality of end stations characterized as being active, the active polling frequency being greater than the inactive polling frequency; and individually characterizing the plurality of end stations to be active and inactive depending an elapse time since each end station last transmitted the transmission request, the active characterization corresponding with the elapse time being less than a time threshold and the inactive characterization corresponding with the elapse time being equal to or greater than the time threshold.
 2. The method of claim 1 further comprising: determining network congestion; and setting the time threshold at a first threshold when the network congestion is at a first level and at a second threshold when the network congestion is at a second level, the second threshold being greater than the first threshold.
 3. The method of claim 1 further comprising: determining application requirements for each end station to be one of frequent data transfer and less frequent data transfer; and setting the time threshold individually for each end station to be one of a first threshold and a second threshold depending on the application requirements of each end station, the first threshold being set when the application requirements require frequent data transfer and the second threshold being set when the application requirements require less frequent data transfer, the second threshold being greater than the first threshold.
 4. The method of claim 1 further comprising: determining service requirements for each end station to be one of business service and residential service; and setting the time threshold individually for each end station to be one of a first threshold and a second threshold depending on the service requirements of each end station, the first threshold being set when the service requirements are for business service and the second threshold being set when the service requirements are for residential service, the second threshold being greater than the first threshold.
 5. The method of claim 1 further comprising: determining percent utilization of a network used to transfer data from the end stations to be one of a first level and a second level; and setting the time threshold individually to be one of a first threshold and a second threshold depending on the percent utilization, the first threshold being set when the percent utilization is at the first level and the second threshold being set when the percent utilization is at the second level, the second threshold being greater than the first threshold.
 6. A multi-tier method of dynamically adjusting polling frequencies at which end stations are transmitted a polling message, the end stations desiring to transmit data being required to respond to the polling message with a transmission request, the method comprising: monitoring data transmission activities of the plurality of end stations; individually characterizing each end station to be one of active and inactive based on the transmission activities; setting an inactive polling frequency for a first plurality of end stations characterized as being inactive; setting an active polling frequency for a second plurality of end stations characterized as being active, the active polling frequency being greater than the inactive polling frequency; determining a percent utilization of a network used to transfer data from the end stations; and selecting the active polling frequency to be one of a first frequency when the percent utilization is less than a percent utilization threshold and a second frequency when the percent utilization is equal to or greater than the percent utilization threshold, the first frequency being greater than the second frequency.
 7. A multi-tier method of dynamically adjusting polling frequencies at which end stations are transmitted a polling message, the end stations desiring to transmit data being required to respond to the polling message with a transmission request, the method comprising: monitoring data transmission activities of the plurality of end stations; individually characterizing each end station to be one of active and inactive based on the transmission activities; setting an inactive polling frequency for a first plurality of end stations characterized as being inactive; setting an active polling frequency for a second plurality of end stations characterized as being active, the active polling frequency being greater than the inactive polling frequency; determining a percent utilization of a network used to transfer data from the end stations; and selecting the inactive polling frequency to be one of a first frequency when the percent utilization is less than a percent utilization threshold and a second frequency when the percent utilization is equal to or greater than the percent utilization threshold, the first frequency being greater than the second frequency.
 8. A multi-tier method of dynamically adjusting polling frequencies at which end stations are transmitted a polling message, the end stations desiring to transmit data being required to respond to the polling message with a transmission request, the method comprising: monitoring data transmission activities of the plurality of end stations; individually characterizing each end station to be one of active and inactive based on the transmission activities; setting an inactive polling frequency for a first plurality of end stations characterized as being inactive; setting an active polling frequency for a second plurality of end stations characterized as being active, the active polling frequency being greater than the inactive polling frequency; determining application requirements for each of the second plurality of end station to be one of frequent data transfer and less frequent data transfer; and selecting the active polling frequency individually for each of the second plurality of end station to be one of a first frequency when the application requirement is frequent data transfer and a second frequency when the application requirement is less frequent data transfer, the second frequency being less than the first frequency.
 9. A multi-tier method of dynamically adjusting polling frequencies at which end stations are transmitted a polling message, the end stations desiring to transmit data being required to respond to the polling message with a transmission request, the method comprising: monitoring data transmission activities of the plurality of end stations; individually characterizing each end station to be one of active and inactive based on the transmission activities; setting an inactive polling frequency for a first plurality of end stations characterized as being inactive; setting an active polling frequency for a second plurality of end stations characterized as being active, the active polling frequency being greater than the inactive polling frequency; and monitoring the data transmission activities with an aggregating unit that transmits the polling messages to the plurality of end stations.
 10. A multi-tier method of dynamically adjusting polling frequencies at which end stations are transmitted a polling message, the end stations desiring to transmit data being required to respond to the polling message with a transmission request, the method comprising: monitoring data transmission activities of the plurality of end stations; individually characterizing each end station to be one of active and inactive based on the transmission activities; setting an inactive polling frequency for a first plurality of end stations characterized as being inactive; setting an active polling frequency for a second plurality of end stations characterized as being active, the active polling frequency being greater than the inactive polling frequency; determining a class of service for each of the second plurality of end stations to be to one of higher class and lower class; and setting the active polling frequency for a first portion of the second plurality of end stations having the higher class of service to be a first frequency and a second portion of the second plurality of end stations having the lower class of server to be a second frequency, the second frequency being greater than the first frequency.
 11. A multi-tier method of dynamically adjusting polling frequencies at which end stations are transmitted a polling message, the end stations desiring to transmit data being required to respond to the polling message with a transmission request, the method comprising: monitoring data transmission activities of the plurality of end stations; individually characterizing each end station to be one of active and inactive based on the transmission activities; setting an inactive polling frequency for a first plurality of end stations characterized as being inactive; setting an active polling frequency for a second plurality of end stations characterized as being active, the active polling frequency being greater than the inactive polling frequency; characterizing a third plurality of the end stations to be moderately active; and setting an moderately-active polling frequency for a third plurality of end stations characterized as being moderately-active, the moderately-active polling frequency being greater than the inactive polling frequency and less than the active polling frequency.
 12. A controller configured to facilitate allocating minislots of a transmission channel used to support polling of end stations, the end stations being characterized as one of active and inactive, the controller configured to: allocate a first number of minislots to support polling of a first plurality of the end stations characterized as being inactive; allocate a second number of minislots to support polling of a second plurality of the end stations characterized as being active, the second number of minislots being greater than the first number of minislots; determine service requirements of the second plurality of the end stations to be one of a first level and a second level; allocate a first portion of the second number of minislots to support polling of the second plurality of end station having service requirements of the first level; and allocate a second portion of the second number of minislots to support polling of the second plurality of end station having service requirements of the second level, the first portion being greater than the second portion.
 13. A controller configured to facilitate allocating minislots of a transmission channel used to support polling of end stations, the end stations being characterized as one of active and inactive, the controller configured to: allocate a first number of minislots to support polling of a first plurality of the end stations characterized as being inactive; allocate a second number of minislots to support polling of a second plurality of the end stations characterized as being active, the second number of minislots being greater than the first number of minislots; determine the first number and the second number of minislots in proportion to a usage percentage of the transmission channel such that a total number of minislots, defined as the sum of the first number and the second number, increases when the usage percentage decreases and decreases when the usage percentage increases.
 14. A method of allocating minislots of a transmission channel used to support polling of end stations, the end stations being characterized as one of active and inactive, the method comprising: allocating a first number of minislots to support polling of a first plurality of the end stations characterized as being inactive; allocating a second number of minislots to support polling of a second plurality of the end stations characterized as being active, the second number of minislots being greater than the first number of minislots; setting an inactive polling frequency for the first plurality of end stations; and setting an active polling frequency for the second plurality of end stations, the active polling frequency being greater than the inactive polling frequency.
 15. A controller configured to facilitate allocating minislots of a transmission channel used to support polling of end stations, the end stations being characterized as one of active and inactive, the controller configured to: allocate a first number of minislots to support polling of a first plurality of the end stations characterized as being inactive; allocate a second number of minislots to support polling of a second plurality of the end stations characterized as being active, the second number of minislots being greater than the first number of minislot; and determine the end stations to be active in the event an elapse time since issuing a data transmission request is greater than a time threshold and to be inactive in the event the elapse time is equal to or greater than the time threshold.
 16. A data communication system for use in facilitating data communications over a network, the system comprising: a plurality of end stations being operable to instigate data communications according to user inputs, the end stations requiring an authorization message in order to execute data communications over the network, the end stations being operable to transmit a request message to request the authorization message in response to receipt of a related polling message; an aggregating unit being operable to: (i) transmit the polling messages at individually selectable polling intervals to a selected one or more of the end stations; (ii) transmit the authorization messages to one or more of the end stations transmitting the request messages; (iii) allocate data units used to carry data over the network as function a number of end stations receiving the authorization message; and an activity monitor being operable with the aggregating unit and being operable to: (i) determine each of the end stations to be one of active and inactive; (ii) individually determine a polling frequency at which each of the end stations are transmitted the polling based on whether the end stations is active or inactive.
 17. The system of claim 16 wherein the activity monitor determines the polling frequency of the active end stations to be greater than the polling frequency of the inactive end stations.
 18. The system of claim 16 wherein the activity monitor determines the end stations to be active and active depending on an elapse time since each end station transmitted the request message. 